Retooling Social Security for the 21st Century: Right and Wrong Approaches to Reform (Urban Institute Press). This item is unavailable.Retooling Social Security for the 21st Century: Right and Wrong Approaches to Reform (Urban Institute Press)

This book sheds welcome light on the raging Social Security debate. Even if solvent, argue the authors, Social Security needs reform because health, longevity, work, and migration patterns are changing. Seize the fiscal crisis as an opportunity to respond to these changing patterns, they say. Develop a blueprint that identifies "right" reforms―those that achieve fiscal balance and increase Social Security's responsiveness to today's and tomorrow's needs.

Steuerle, author of The Tax Decade , and Bakija provide ample evidence that fiscal pressures plus basic economic and demographic changes will force major reform of the U.S. Social Security system over the next decade. They argue cogently that proposed changes in the tax and benefit formulas of this central social insurance program must be judged in terms of their impact on the system's long- rather than short-term effectiveness, and in terms of their consistency with certain fundamental principles: progressivity, individual and horizontal equity, and economic efficiency. Like Steuerle's previous book, Retooling Social Security is far from an easy read: it's heavy on notes, charts, and statistics, and readers will find some of its discussions and explanations convoluted. Still, the volume offers a detailed outline of how Social Security actually functions and the probable effect of many "reforms" suggested by politicians and pundits. Larger social science collections will want to acquire this demanding study. Mary Carroll